Joaquin Margot was one of seven who completed requirements for a Master of Fine Arts (Computer Graphics) at Pratt Institute, on 10/1/90. He completed a computer graphics thesis, with Alias Animator software, entitled 'Virtual Obsession', which I saw being worked on the computer lab, with help from Rafael Castelblanco. I did not know the full extent of the help that he got, but I saw that the digitization was done by Cyberware, and he told us he flew to their office and back, for the data file of his head. This thesis is online, on YouTube.com, put there by 'mdmovieman', or Mr. Ely Goldbrenner, a student who studied at Pratt during summer, 1990, in the Architecture bldg. I never knew Mr. Ely Goldbrenner existed before a day in April of 2012, when I happened to see this thesis video posted on YouTube.com by him. I have, since, put my thesis work and other undergraduate work on YouTube.com. I don't know of any other (there are five others that could be posted) 1990 thesis postings, still, today, in 2012.
What comes to mind about that time was that there were three babies born - to my thesis advisor Mr. Jeremy Gardiner; to Mr. Phil Avanzato, who was Lab Asst. to Mr. Isaac Kerlow and Ely Goldbrenner's teacher; and one in my family. I traveled to Switzerland, on the way to Strasbourg, France, in January, 1991, and met with Joaquin in Lausanne for a few minutes, and talked to him about work, which was the intent of the meeting. At that time, I needed something to take with me from this new program, and did not even have a diploma, no thesis exhibit, no job leads or recruiters on campus, or any previous graduates of the program to talk to or know. Joaquin happened to be from Europe, and I am of European descent. None of the other graduates were European - South American, South Korean(Asian) or from the middle east. I was the only single nationality American in the program at that time, a licensed professional in the state of New York, a Registered Architect. I don't know of any other Registered Architects from this program, still, now over 20 years later.
I did not ever expect to see his head on the cover of a software CD, as I did in 2003. The CD was 'Maya PLE', and his thesis animation of his head had been redone to a single photo of his real head, with a tattoo on his forehead.
I have not seen Joaquin Margot, using the additional last name of 'Gil' in Madrid, Spain, since June, 1997, nor talked to him. He was working for a company named 'SGO', an Alias reseller, in downtown, but, was employed by Alias/wavefront, Inc., in Paris, France. I traveled back to Europe after being invited to help teach at Washington University in Fall, 1996, to teach their Alias Studio software in the School of Engineering. I had questions, and a lot of questions, at that time, regarding what had happened to my work, and had none of them answered. In fact, I was ignored and lied to, and paid a lot of money to get that information. I was without a car for two years, and lived in poverty until I received the posted e-mail from Pratt's Career placement contact, in 1998. I still have questions, but, don't have any idea who can help me now. I had little to take with me in 1990, and what I found when I looked around was like me asking for more than anyone had to give away.
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